Unvarnished look at unscrupulous kennel

Last week, the USA Network aired the 130th edition of the renowned Westminster Dog Show, the annual competition bringing together all manner of pampered and pedigreed pooches. Tonight at 10 on HBO, you’ll see how the canine world’s other half lives -- and dies.

The imperiled stars of the documentary “America Undercover: Dealing Dogs” have no blue ribbons in their future. Their fate lies in research labs and veterinary schools, where they’ll serve their masters in ways that may result in longer, healthier lives for humans. But however one feels about medical experimentation on animals, it’s how the dogs get to the clinics that’s the issue tonight.

This powerful film by Emmy-winner Tom Simon and Sarah Teale takes viewers inside Martin Creek Kennel in Arkansas, one of the nation’s largest Class B providers of dogs for research. Believing the family-run facility to be guilty of criminal mistreatment of its charges, the rights group Last Chance for Animals hooked up with the filmmakers to infiltrate the kennel with a worker whose hidden camera would document the activities inside in the hopes of shutting it down.

Thus began a six-month project to develop and maintain a new identity for the man who would be known as “Pete,” a Last Chance member who throws off his longtime vegan ways to better mix with the locals in and around Williford, Ark. Pete takes a job at McDonald’s, rents a small trailer to live in and begins throwing around hints in town about his experience working in kennels. At night, he rehearses gearing up with the ingenious hidden-camera rig that he’ll have to wear while pondering what might befall him if his ruse is discovered.

Detailing the exhaustive prep work for Pete’s undercover mission seems to drag on a bit, yet it also effectively ratchets up the level of suspense and dread in viewers who can already imagine the horrific images that await them once he’s inside.

Eventually, Pete secures a low-level job at Martin Creek, run by C.C. Baird, a small-town big shot who also happens to be minister of a local church. Baird’s wife is initially suspicious of the new hire, nagging the boss into asking Pete straight-out (captured on hidden camera) if he’s an animal-rights activist.

Yet the worst is yet to come. Once inside the facility, which holds about 600 dogs at any given time, the camera chronicles in nightmarish, skittery “Blair Witch” fashion what Pete describes as “a little piece of hell on Earth.” Sick, starving dogs with jutted-out ribs and defeated eyes, others covered with raw bite wounds, are relegated to bare concrete-floor cages, four to an enclosure. Pete’s job is to hose down the cages daily, which leaves the dogs soaked and exposed to the freezing Arkansas nights.

The facility loses around eight dogs a week, but not all to wounds or disease. “We got a biter here,” says one worker as he chokes and backhands the animal, which is then taken out back and shot through the forehead. Soon, the carcass joins hundreds of others in a maggot-infested open trench on the property.

With the hidden camera, the documentary also reveals how Baird collects his animals, primarily buying them from “bunchers” at $15 or $20 a head and then selling them to research labs for upward of $200 apiece. Baird would commonly sell 100 to 150 dogs a month. While Class A dealers breed their animals specifically for the labs, Class B dealers can collect them from shelters, pounds and individuals who are supposed to sign paperwork pledging that the animals are theirs.

But as we see with Baird, the paperwork is often ignored. One of the bunchers, who might come to the kennels three times a week with six to 12 dogs per visit, brags of “going into rich people’s neighborhoods” and stealing pets from yards. “That could be a child’s dog,” says his wife later with some remorse while husband Bob is off closing the deal with Baird. “But Bob don’t care. He likes the money,” she says.

Pete anguishes over having to stand by helplessly as he documents the offenses, but his efforts eventually bear fruit. Baird is brought to justice, the kennel is shut down and the surviving dogs of Martin Creek Kennel are adopted in joyful scenes that help soothe the eyes and soul of those sturdy enough to survive an often-harrowing 70 minutes.

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‘America Undercover: Dealing Dogs’

Where: HBO

When: 10 to 11:15 tonight

Ratings: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children younger than 17)